Palestinians in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra have huddled inside their homes for days on end, unable to leave because of the threat posed by Israeli settlers. The Israeli military, which over the past three years has displayed staggering military and intelligence capabilities from Beirut to Tehran, has yet to fully remove the settlers from the area of the village, about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv.
A look at Trump's tendency to avoid blame when things go awry. It is among the most famous phrases in presidential history: " The buck stops here." Except with President Donald Trump, it almost never does. Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround. The problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship.
Flight-tracking data showed the planes converging along the same path while separated by about 3 miles horizontally and 2,000 feet vertically. read more
Germany has provided a new package of humanitarian and emergency services equipment to Ukraine, including a raft of firefighting robots ... read more
A federal judge suggested that government lawyers could be held in contempt after he repeatedly pressed the Department of Justice to explain redactions in a tranche of challenged documents from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. read more
@#5 ... "Invasive species" are what scientists call this phenomenon infecting the US body politic. ...
BrainDead
en.wikipedia.org
... BrainDead is an American political satire science fiction[1][2][3] comedy-drama television series created by Robert and Michelle King.[4] The series stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Laurel Healy, a documentary film-maker who takes a job working for her brother Luke (Danny Pino), a U.S. Senator, after the funding for her latest film falls through.
Assigned as his new constituency caseworker, she discovers that Washington, D.C. has been invaded by extraterrestrial insects which are eating the brains and taking control of people, including members of Congress and their staffers.
Much of the internal comedy of the series was that, in the altered reality of Washington, D.C. politics, only a few people noticed. ...
The show ran during the campaign season of Pres Trump's first term, and often had TV sets in the background playing then candidate Trump's campaign speeches ...
Meanwhile Pres Trump's private militia is monitoring Americans ...
DHS documents show widespread spying on anti-ICE protesters, unions
www.upi.com
... Department of Homeland Security investigators took part in a wide-ranging probe of progressive groups and labor unions as part of a crackdown on dissent during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, according to court filings.
Documents filed in Minneapolis on Thursday by lawyers defending 15 Minnesotans against federal conspiracy charges showed DHS agents secretly obtained financial records from labor unions and recorded meetings of social justice groups at private buildings, public parks and churches as they organized against the large-scale Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crackdown in the Twin Cities earlier this year.
The documents also showed that DHS agents collected the license plate numbers of people attending an anti-ICE meeting at a suburban church in order to obtain the names of those inside, then produced dossiers on the attendees including their names, photos, addresses, vehicle registrations, family and employment information. ...
Just 3% of recent ICE detainees had a violent felony conviction, government data shows (June 2026)
abcnews.com
... Only 3% of individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first 14 months of the second Trump administration had a violent felony conviction, according to an ABC News analysis of government data.
The findings, based on data tracking the current Trump administration's immigration crackdown, come after President Donald Trump had pledged to target the "worst of the worst" criminal offenders among the nation's migrants.
Based on government data analyzed by ABC News as provided by ICE in response to a FOIA requests to the Deportation Data Project and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, the findings show that immigration enforcement has affected more than 400,000 individuals with no violent criminal history, including parents and spouses of U.S. citizens. ...
Trump demands threaten Navy's progress
www.politico.com
... The president's interest in the service has brought it more attention but could also be its downfall.
Donald Trump's demands on the Navy reached full tilt this month, threatening to weaken a service already under considerable financial and logistical strain.
Family of sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier deployment warned the crew was near breaking after a record nine months at sea.
A government report said Trump's "Golden Fleet" of new battleships would cost billions more than anticipated.
And experts decried a presidential order to restore old tech that could upend ship production.
The issues are now compounding each other. This puts enormous pressure on a service that has struggled with yearslong delays, embarrassing cost overruns and a shrinking fleet -- all of which could threaten the Navy's ability to defend the country.
"We have ships pushing their limits in the Middle East and the Caribbean with no end in sight," said a U.S. official. "The Navy is really coming under the gun now."
The most headline-grabbing incident occurred this week when the Lincoln passed its 260th day at sea without a port visit. This breaks a record of 204 days set by another ship during the coronavirus pandemic. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao announced Friday that the Lincoln would return to port.
Crew members have reportedly tried to jump overboard, families are frustrated and lawmakers are worried about the overall health of the fleet and its sailors. This has also made it a symbol of the Trump administration's flailing progress with the Iran war.
Trump and Hegseth "both owe these sailors and their families an apology," said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, the Senate Democrats' top defense appropriator. "If they can't take care of the troops under their watch, they should step aside for leaders who can." ...
Another view ...
Mark Kelly on aircraft carrier catapult order: 'Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff'
thehill.com
... Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) blasted President Trump on Thursday for ordering the U.S. Navy to revert to older catapult systems on its aircraft carriers, arguing the change would be costly while questioning Trump's qualifications to make such a call.
"He's a marginally failed real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies," Kelly said in an interview with MS NOW. "He shouldn't be weighing in on systems, on aircraft carriers." ...
The Arizona Democrat has said that despite his own experience in hundreds of career takeoffs and landings, his degree in aeronautical and marine engineering and his work as a test pilot, he still would not tell Navy engineers how to design a carrier.
"Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff," the senator continued in the interview. "Not in any world would I suggest to the Navy to change the design of some system on a ship at this point."
He added, "I mean, does the guy know nothing about the way our government is supposed to work and how it's supposed to be managed?" ...
Good advice to Taylor Farms sources ...
Apologies for the bluntness ...
Ween - Don't --- Where You Eat (1994)
www.youtube.com
@#16 ... ...because Trump chose the OTHER blonde strumpet for his Catering Cart. And that's when she realized...she just wasn't cart-worthy in His eyes. ...
Yeah, that is most curious.
Along with many other things about that plane switch.
For starters...
'If I go, you go, right?': Traveling on the presidential plane -- without Trump
www.reuters.com
... As part of the press pool traveling with Trump, I was along for the ride.
The itinerary change was confusing, and Trump's explanation seemed implausible. Reporters' questions to one another turned to whether Iran had hatched a concrete plot to assassinate the president. At first, our precise itinerary also remained a mystery, though we assumed we were still heading back to Washington as initially planned after the stop in the United Kingdom. ...
During the flight, he denied that security concerns were a factor. But when I asked him why we had to close our window shades, he acknowledged the persistent threats he faced from Iran.
"But if I go, you go. Right?" Trump told us. "Perhaps someday you want to change professions." ...
@#27 ... Assuming the group can maintain 20 knots, the rescue carrier should be there in about a week. ...
I hope that will be what happens.
Long Beach Dub Allstars - Sunny Hours ft. will.i.am (2001)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
Stumbled on this old sun dial, then these words I read
I only count the sunny hours, brightest hours of day
I never count the gloomy hours I let them slip away.
...
@#8 ... domestic terrorists who illegally sought to impede ICE ...
That's ICE making that assertion?
ICE wouldn't lie, or would they?